Yemen in Broad Counter-Terrorism Sweep

Al Mukalla: Yemen anti-terror squads have stepped up raids on suspected Al Qaida and Daesh hideouts in the port city of Aden as similar forces announced foiling terror plots against government facilities in the province of Hadramout.

Aden police said in a statement that highly trained forces stormed several houses in the city, leading to uncovering a small factory for making explosive materials and car bombs.

At a house belonging to a fugitive Al Qaida operative, government forces founded explosive vests, IEDs and remote detonators.

Police said investigations with Al Qaida prisoners led to locating the house while its owner fled before the arrival of security services.

Aden, the second largest city in Yemen and the base of the internationally-recognised government, has been recently hit by two deadly suicide attacks that killed nearly 100 security forces.

A shadowy branch of Daesh claimed responsibility for the two attacks and a number of drive-by shootings against intelligence officers.

Similarly, president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Thursday ordered the governor of Aden, Aidarous Al Zubaidi, and the city’s chief security, Shalal Shayae, to beef up security measures to prevent similar terrorist attacks in the future against security officers.

According to the state-run Saba news agency, Hadi instructed them to work coherently and share intelligence information that would lead to thwarting attacks in future.

Meanwhile, in the Arab Sea city of Al Mukalla, in the Hadramout province, the army announced on Wednesday night the dismantling of a “terrorist” cell that was plotting attacks against government facilities.

The militants were hiding inside a house in the city of Al Mukalla.

On Monday, the army said in a statement, a suspected Al Qaida operative was captured before carrying out an attack in the city’s seaport.

Two other operatives carrying bombs were arrested close to a power station in the city.

Government forces, trained and armed by the UAE, kicked Al Qaida militants out Al Mukalla, Yemen’s fifth largest city, and other major cities in the south early this year.

In the north, government forces battled Iran-backed Al Houthis and their allied forces in the province of Saada and outside the capital.

In the Nehim district outside of Sana’a, Abdullah Al Shandaqi, a spokesperson for Sana’a resistance, said that government forces, backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, liberated a mountain in the district’s rugged terrain.

Despite reaching almost 40km from Al Houthi-held Sana’a, army generals in the area say that landmines planted by Al Houthis and Nehim’s tough geographical nature have slowed down their advances.